By Jaclyn De Candio for Protect The Harvest
If you’ve paid attention to mainstream news outlets, you’ve likely come across the phrase “net zero” as it relates to greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) across various industries. “Net zero” is increasingly used to promote a fantasy world in which political, governmental, corporate and special interest entities believe they have the ability to control nature. It’s a “novel” idea, as it’s pure fiction, hysterically promoted in the name of saving the planet from the scientifically bankrupt effort to halt, and/or reverse “climate change.”
The “net zero” catchphrase, has been propagated by elitists around the globe, including government elected representatives and unelected bureaucrats. One organization on the leading edge of this effort is the United Nations (UN), which champions the reduction of GHGs to zero, or near zero. Humanity is a carbon-based life form. One of the GHGs fanatic “climate change” crusaders blame for the warming of planet earth is CO2. Yet, without CO2, there is little or no life on planet earth.
Cleansing the planet of vilified GHGs is a massive challenge, to say the least. It would likely be suicidal for carbon-based life forms. In fact, it would require a total transformation in how our world operates, or might cease to operate.
Remember, food production is closely linked to several other industries with one of the most important being the energy sector. Fossil fuels and related by-products and derivatives are necessary for planting, growing, harvesting and processing food, as well as transporting it.
Entities such as the UN believe “replacing polluting coal, gas and oil-fired power with energy from renewable sources, such as wind or solar, would dramatically reduce carbon emissions.” One has to wonder if the UN consulted anyone in agriculture associated with producing the quantities of food required to feed 8 billion people. It’s easy to be an elitist throwing around rhetoric and decrees, but it’s something quite different to be a farmer or rancher who actually produces food!
A close look at the UN’s path forward reveals enormous impossibilities that would cripple human society, health and prosperity.
What Does “Net Zero” Mean for Energy and Transportation?
The Biden administration has proposed a plan to move to zero fossil fuel use by the year 2050 in order to meet net zero goals. This means no oil, no gas, and no coal to power the economy. Additionally, there appears to be little support for alternatives, including hydropower and nuclear energy.
Instead, with increased fervor, all of the focus is placed on solar and wind-generating electricity to meet America’s energy needs. Absent in the push for wind and solar is the truth about negative aspects such as unreliability, unrealistic power output projections, and actual sustainability.
Recently, U.S. Department of the Treasury Senior Leadership met with technical non-governmental organization (NGO) leadership to discuss “transition planning efforts” towards this unattainable “net zero” goal. “Participants discussed the importance of promoting consistency among voluntary standards and best practices for net-zero transition plans and identified gaps in available data and technical resources and priorities for future work,” stated a report.
The White House has declared this issue “requires action spanning across every sector of the economy.” Food production will not be untouched by these overzealous goals.
Net Zero Efforts Threaten to Cripple the U.S. Food System
Now is the time for Americans to examine the “net zero” objective and look at the potential repercussions for our food and agricultural economy, and the complex, integrated and efficient matrix that results in American leadership in food production.
Fossil fuels are essential for our rural and agricultural communities as well as for food security for Americans. As an example, inputs both on and off the farm rely heavily on timely and efficient transportation, from shipping seeds to loading and unloading grain that will be sold domestically and internationally. Consider the equipment used on the production end. Tractors used for modern, large-scale, commodity production demand power that is simply not compatible with electric, solar, or battery-powered offerings currently on the market.
First, big batteries weight a lot, and the added weight to farm equipment could cause soil compaction impacting soil health. Second, reliability and efficiency are crucial when it comes to the time spent out in the field during the crucial, limited, seasonality of planting and harvest. Some battery powered tractors supposedly last 14 hours on a full charge, but the cost of moving back and forth between charging stations and fields is time consuming and impractical during the long work days. Nature doesn’t wait for batteries to be recharged! One simply can’t bring a charging station to a tractor the way one can supply fuel.
These same principles can also be applied to the transport sector, whether trucks are moving livestock, fertilizer, pesticides, commodities, or other essential materials.
Cost and Food Security
Transitioning to this “greener” future usually omits the financial cost to both producers and consumers. Without fossil fuels, the scale and timeliness in which livestock and crops could be harvested and distributed across the nation would be severely constrained, leading to food shortages and increased input costs, harming both production and consumption.
Another issue associated with so-called “clean energy” is the amount of land and natural resources required to support wind and solar. By some estimates, it would take approximately 26 million acres of U.S. land to achieve the net zero goals. This has led to heated debate on the conversion and/or confiscation of farmland to support wind and solar efforts as opposed to food production use. Farmland isn’t getting any more plentiful. In fact, in 2021, 1.3 million acres of American farmland was lost to other uses, unlikely to ever be available for food production again.
Now is the time for farmers, ranchers and consumers to make their voices heard. The elites pushing net zero are clearly not factoring in the value of the food system and the people who rely on it. In order to ensure A Free and Fed America™, we must shine a light on challenges such as “net zero.”
